The Magus, John Fowles (Laurel). Distraught by...

The Magus, John Fowles (Laurel). Distraught by one of the failed love affairs so frequent in Fowles’ novels, Nicholas Urfe, the narrator, leaves England to teach on a Greek isle. There, he meets Maurice Conchis, a reclusive millionaire who soon manages to trap him in a labyrinth in which reality and fantasy become indistinguishable. Is Conchis really a recluse? Does Nicholas still have control over the events in his own life? The mystery is thoroughly gripping, but ultimately artificial, as Fowles himself has admitted. Nevertheless, this revised version of Fowles’ first novel effectively launches one of the author’s principal themes: True freedom lies between faith in a God and faith in oneself, never in either alone.

The Courage of Turtles, Edward Hoagland (North Point). “They keep plugging, rolling like sailorly souls--a bobbing, infirm gait, a brave, sea-legged momentum--stopping occasionally to study the lay of the land.” In the spirit of turtles--”a kind of bird with the governor turned low”--Hoagland finds clues about girlfriends, county fairs, radicalism and tugboats.

Free Agents, Max Apple (Harper & Row). Twenty essays, fiction and nonfiction, sarcastic and soft-edged, by an author compared to both Chekhov and Woody Allen. The first piece explores the growth of Walt Disney--from the dreamy cartoonist who would sketch Mickey Mouse figures with large teeth, dark blotchy fur and four legs to the ambitious entrepreneur who created such characters as Steamboat Willie (“He would not settle, this ballsy mouse, for being like a man, he wanted to be a big man, a leader, one whose actions changed the world, one who roused in women sighs deep enough to move sheets drying on the line”).

The Druids, Stuart Piggott, The Spartans, L. F. Fitzhardinge, Scotland: Archaeology and Early History, Graham and Anna Ritchie (Norton/Thames & Hudson). This archeological series about civilizations before Christ, abundantly illustrated with black-and-white photographs, aims to dispel prevailing myths. The authors argue, for example, that the Druids had nothing to do with Stonehenge and that the notion that the Spartans despised all cultural achievement was merely a propaganda ploy.

The Treasure of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pisan (Penguin). “Practical” social advice, with chapters ranging from “How Temptations Can Come to a High-Born Princess” to “How Women of Rank Ought to Be Conservative in Their Clothing.” Written in 1405, the book offers a rare feminine perspective on medieval life.

The Crime Game, Michael Laver. Just like any other business, argues the author, the basis of kidnaping, extortion, hijacking and blackmail is to maximize profits with minimum effort and risk. Moreover, the organized criminal operates in a world that businessmen can only dream of: a captive market under monopoly control.

Hiroshima, John Hersey (Bantam). This haunting essay, written in 1946 and based on official records, tells how six people struggled to survive during the first hours of the atomic age.

Ideas and Opinions, Albert Einstein (Crown). Four sections on social, political and religious issues and only one on theoretical physics. Still, the book is the most comprehensive paperback edition so far, including thoughts on fame (“It strikes me as unfair to select a few people for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them”) and wealth (“Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?”).

How to Imagine: A Narrative on Art, Agriculture and Creativity, Gianfranco Baruchello, Henry Martin (Bantam/New Age). In lettuce, a cow, or an enormous swarm of bees on a country farm, Baruchello sees knowledge about feminism, the soul, genesis, death. In 1980, he recounted these insights to American journalist Martin.

The Right Brain Experience, Marilee Zdenek (McGraw-Hill). Offering self-help that rises above such pseudo-scientific cure-alls as “Psycho-Cybernetics,” Zdenek provides 67 mental exercises designed to strengthen imagination and insight. Tips range from the simple--staring at a mandala--to the involved--reliving and modifying dreams. Writers, artists and musicians also forward their creative techniques in the book.

The Kennedys: An American Drama, Peter Collier and David Horowitz (Warner). The drama, as the authors see it, lies primarily in the lustful or dissipated behavior of the principals in the Kennedy saga or in the drug-related problems of three of the Kennedy children. Well written, but with only scant references to the Kennedys’ political and moral leadership in civil rights and aiding the poor.